Evie's 2nd Birthday

I can hardly believe it, but my little girl is already 2 years old! Because her birthday wasn't until Thursday, we decided to have her party a couple of days early on Sunday so more of our family could come.

One of her girl cousins brought dress-up shoes to play with, and all of the girls put on a pair and posed for a picture!

I went to the Dollar Tree on my way home from church and picked up three fun Mylar balloons for her party. She was thrilled by the shine, by the bright colors, by the fun shapes. She loved that, with a single tug, she could bounce her balloons off of the ceiling, and she spent the better part of the afternoon doing just that! When her guests arrived, she took her balloons from person to person to show them off. 

When it came time to open presents, Evie climbed up onto the piano bench and eagerly reached for her first present. The first couple were from her Uncle John and Aunt Margot and their kids. They are some of her very favorite people, always making her laugh! Their first present was a DVD copy of "Peter Pan."

The second gift was a DVD copy of "Wreck-it Ralph," which I think her Daddy was more excited about than she was!

The next gift was from her Tia and her cousin Julia. They gave her a princess block castle, and she was very excited about the sparkly purple blocks!

Then it was time for presents from Mommy and Daddy. The first one was a couple of 2-pack Disney soundtracks: "Lion King" & "Lion King 2," and "Beauty and the Beast" & "The Little Mermaid." All three have gorgeous music, in fact they each have a Broadway musical based on them, and I know Evie will love dancing to the music.

Then she got a couple of the little growing girl statues: one for her first birthday, to catch up from last year, and another for her second birthday.

This next gift took me weeks to find! When I was growing up, my mom got me a Cabbage Patch doll named Bessie. She had curly blonde hair and blue eyes, and her birthday was the same as mine. She was a very special doll to me because she looked just like me! I wanted Evie to have that same feeling about a doll of her very own. I looked all over the internet for a doll that has dark blonde pigtails and brown eyes. Most of the dolls that fit that description were ugly and/or outrageously expensive. Even Cabbage Patch doesn't carry a doll that fit what I wanted. Finally, I found a really pretty doll that was reasonably priced and, even if she doesn't look exactly like Evie, she looks close enough to make Evie happy.
She's made by Little Mommy, a sub-company of Fisher-Price. She's part of the Sweet As Me toddler line, and she's a School's Cool doll. I've already named her Dinah in honor of Evie's favorite song when she was little: "I've Been Workin' On the Railroad." She has dark brown curly pigtails and hazel eyes. They're not quite the same as Evie's dark brown ones, but if Evie wants me to someday, I can always fix them with a Sharpie! :)

Next, Evie got two Disney Princess storybooks, each with 3 of the original Princess stories. Volume 1 has "Beauty and the Beast," the "Little Mermaid," and "Aladdin." Volume 2 has "Snow White," "Cinderella," and "Sleeping Beauty." Apparently, Volume 3 is coming out next year with "Princess and the Frog," "Tangled," and "Brave."

From her grandparents, Evie got a bottle of spill-proof bubbles and a fun pencil that has 3 different colors in its lead.

The last gift we gave Evie was a used play kitchen. A lady in the ward had given it to us right before Christmas, but we forgot to give it to the girls then, so we just saved it for Evie's birthday. To go along with it, we also got her a set of play food and put everything under the brown sheet that Evie pulled off for her big reveal.

For the last several months, every time I asked Evie what kind of cake she wanted she always said, "Pink." Chocolate or strawberry? "Pink chocolate." Light pink or dark? "Dark pink chocolate." Okie-dokie! I made her a chocolate cake and then spent forever coloring her frosting. No matter how much red coloring I put in, the pink never seemed dark enough. Finally, centuries later, it was pink enough to satisfy both of us, and was ready for sprinkles!
We've been practicing blowing for the last couple of months now, trying to help her be able to blow out her own candles. As you can see from the above video, it sort of worked. Evie was able to blow out the first candle by herself, but then it got tricky. Even with the help of her almost-3-year old cousin, Anya, Evie was unable to aim her air well enough to blow out that last candle. Finally, Daddy had to help, but I don't think she noticed. 

At the end of the night, Evie was a very gracious hostess: she saw all of her guests to the door and thanked them for coming to her party and for her giving her such fun presents!